Well well well , after purchasing my permit from the garage in Ponterwyd what I had in store for me was two fold to be honest …. Firstly the fog, when I got across the moors, travelling passed Dinas reservoir, it was literally pea soup, I honestly couldn’t see twenty yards in front of me …. Crawling along as I knew there were beef cattle on the approach to my destination and they had calves, so I didn’t want to upset the mums, carefully does it, eventually reaching the dam …. I opted for the extreme left arm of the massive six hundred and forty acre reservoir ….. as there was actually a pokey westerly breeze blowing ….. well actually it seemed more North westerly in fairness, perfect I could fish the extensive western bank and hopefully enjoy some good sport ….. which was my second surprise of the day it was to be superb, but more on the fishing side of the day later ….
I tackled up in what seemed like a scene from Lord of the Rings …. Mid Wales had somehow become Middle Earth !!!! Anyway the sport …… rigging up my usual Orvis rod to deal with these large waters …. I do love the six weight, it’s just a great all rounder and fishes delicate dries and a team of two wets so well, which was my chosen tactic today…. Again, praises to Airflo and the fantastic polyleaders, I’ve used the floater and Hover so far this season ….. absolutely flawless, love the hover leader, as it turns over a team of flies beautifully and does exactly what it says on the tin ……. Beds the flies just under the surface in water depth of about one foot, perfect !!!!! A team of two tiny wet flies, my favourite a Katie Mac and a Clan Chief variant ….. sport was sublime from the off …… the fish here are feisty, no real need to wade in far, I like to wade in a bit after an initial cast or two close in …. Wading does prevent your fly line getting damaged on a rough craggy shore line , and as we all know some of these lines now especially the ones from across the Pond, you almost need a second mortgage for .. with overhang markers, different colours, different profiles ….. trust me the best weapon you can have is knowledge …. Fancy overpriced lines aren’t needed in the wilds of Wales, be it Upland Llyn, Reservoir or mountain stream ….. mine are from Barrio fly lines, most excellent they are too, on this rod and my double taper, two weight line on my small streams rod …. Great value and that little white surrender flag; doesn’t show itself out of your wallet either when purchasing these lines …. Contact Mike Barrio of Barrio fly lines, you won’t be disappointed ……… trust me !
As I worked along the westerly shore, takes were aggressive, sometimes lovely splashy swirls as the flies settled … I must be honest odd weather, here was me thinking on Friday, ahh this stiff breeze will soon blow this thick pea soup away, how wrong was I ….. half one it loitered around till … but sport was frantic and fun !!!!! A lot were small eight to ten inch brownies, but some nice twelve inch wild fish in the mix …. Then out of the blue bang !!!!!!!!! a huge swirl as my flies settled …. A leviathan had nailed my point fly and fancied the Katie Mac as brunch !!!!! The tussle was great and eventually slipped the net under a beauty, perhaps twenty two inches, a stunning wild brownie … and not the only one that day, another was to follow !!!! I rested her, quick piccie, then with a sulky splashy she was awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ! The next biggie hit about an hour later, again she took the point fly, another cracker, a shade smaller but a chunky solid wild fish, makes you wonder how old these war horses are ???? A cracking day, two dozen trout to the net and two of them lumps too …. ‘‘Twas nice to see the fog actually lift at about half one …..ahhhhhhhhh a landscape, at last !!!!
So as I ate my well earned Ginsters pastie and had a cup of coffee, was nice to ponder over a lovely day at a beautiful location …. Blessed I’d say and truly spoilt …. For fourteen quid you just can’t beat it …. I wrapped things up about fourish, time to make the half hour trek back to sleepy Rhayader, dekit, a quick freshen up and a swift pint of Holy Water in The Crown……… well, it was a Friday …… 😉😉😉🍺🍺🍺🍺🎣🎣🎣🎣
